LessonsZuhayr ibn Abī Sulmā: Age, Mortality, Honor, and Keeping Promises (Verses 43–52)Quiz

وَمَنْ يَكُ ذَا فَضْلٍ فَيَبْخَلْ بِفَضْلِهِ ۞ عَلَى قَوْمِهِ يُسْتَغْنَ عَنْهُ وَيُذْمَمِ
Whoever possesses abundance or distinction yet withholds its benefit from his own people will find that they dispense with him, and he is censured.

Dhā faḍlin includes dhā, one of the five special nouns; faḍl may mean wealth, abundance or distinction. Fa-yabkhal adds a refusal to share, producing the outcome yustaghnā ʿanhu—others can do without him. The moral force lies in the failure to use capacity for communal benefit.

Opening interactive controls...

Verse 51: The duty attached to abundance

Zuhayr ibn Abī Sulmā: Age, Mortality, Honor, and Keeping Promises (Verses 43–52)

وَمَنْ يَكُ ذَا فَضْلٍ فَيَبْخَلْ بِفَضْلِهِ ۞ عَلَى قَوْمِهِ يُسْتَغْنَ عَنْهُ وَيُذْمَمِ
Whoever possesses abundance or distinction yet withholds its benefit from his own people will find that they dispense with him, and he is censured.

Dhā faḍlin includes dhā, one of the five special nouns; faḍl may mean wealth, abundance or distinction. Fa-yabkhal adds a refusal to share, producing the outcome yustaghnā ʿanhu—others can do without him. The moral force lies in the failure to use capacity for communal benefit.